The Wine CEO Episode 26: Non-Alcoholic Wines

Non Alcoholic wines are really trendy right now...but are they good? When you're shopping for Non-Alcoholic wines, how do you know if some are better than others? In Episode 26, I dive into these questions and more! I also tried something I've never done before on the show - I invited 3 of my friends to taste 4 wines with me to get their LIVE reactions. We had some really fun thoughts on these wines, so you don't want to miss this hilarious (and interesting) episode! And be sure to hit subscribe so that you never miss an episode.

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Episode 26 Show Notes:

The biggest thing to remember when you are shopping for non-alcoholic wines is that the label should say "de-alcoholized" or "alcohol removed". If the label simply states "non-alcoholic", then there's a good chance that this is simply grape juice (or a very loosely regulated sugary beverage). De-Alcoholized wines are wines that are made in normal wine making and fermentation processes. Then the alcohol is removed to leave a beverage that should still taste like wine, but has less than 1% ABV. (It is important to note that some non-alcoholic wines can still have a small percentage of alcohol in them! Unless the bottle says 0%, be mindful that it may have trace amounts of alcohol).

Sadly, what we found from today's episode was that a lot of de-alcoholized wines on the market are just not as good as the real stuff. We only tried 4 wines, so there's definitely an opportunity to try other brands and explore a bit more. But, we tried 4 different brands and none were overly impressive. As a sommelier, I was really underwhelmed, but even my 3 friends were hoping for more flavor. They all agreed that you could use these wines as a mixer to make a mocktail or NA sangria, but none of the wines were delicious enough to polish a bottle off at your next mommy-to-be brunch.

Below are the 4 wines that we tried as well as a brief review of each wine. Be sure to listen to the show to get our full reactions and why we rated each wine as below.

1. Almost Zero Ravishing Rose

• This wine label from South Africa makes a white, red, rose, and sparkling that are all de-alcoholized. They claim that all of their wines have 0.4%ABV and are lower in sugar than the average wine.
• Sadly, we were underwhelmed by their rose. It had a very odd aroma and a weird aftertaste.
• Only 1/3 of my friends said that she would drink this while she was pregnant. The other 2 said that they would drink it over ice with some sparkling water or juice, but wouldn't drink it on it's own.
• Overall, we rated it a 5.5/10 as someone who likes dry rose and is desperate for a glass of wine during pregnancy may enjoy it.

2. Giesen 0% Sauvignon Blanc

• This was definitely the best NA wine we tried. I actually did a blind tasting where I gave everyone this wine and a regular sauvignon blanc from New Zealand. Everyone guessed correctly which one was non-alcoholic, but they did hesitate for a moment, which speaks to the quality of the dealcoholized wine.
• The aromas were pleasant and the flavor profile did remind me of a lighter sauvignon blanc. Sadly, it was a bit flat on the end though and lost so much flavor within seconds.
• Again, only 1/3 of my friends said they would drink it on their own and the other 2 said they would turn it into a white sangria or mocktail.
• Overall we rated this wine a 7/10 as it was the best of the 4 we tried. If you were looking for a glass of white wine, this is the best one I've found on the market.

3. Alternativa 0.0 Rosso

• I can't beat around the bush....this wine was awful. We all agreed that it had almost no flavor. It had a very light scent on the nose and then no body at all.
• Sadly it tasted watered down. Maybe we got a bad bottle, but it was truly terrible.
• I was disappointed since I love Italian red wines and this one was made from a fairly well known grape varietal (Montepulciano d'Abruzzo).
• But at the end of the day, we rated this a 0/10 as we could not in good faith recommend it to anyone!

4. St. Regis Cabernet Sauvignon

• Although this red wine was better than the Alternativa 0.0, we were still disappointed by the lack of flavor.
• For a Cabernet Sauvignon, it had extremely light body and almost no structure. One of my friends said that it tasted like grape juice to her and not wine at all.
• We rated this wine a 3/10 because it has enough flavor that you could turn it into a red NA sangria, but it's not good enough to drink on it's own.

It was suggested that we need to do a second episode that is solely on non-alcoholic sparkling wines and I agree this would be a popular topic! Sadly I think the final thought was that there are a few decent NA wines on the market that could be used as mixers in mocktails, but they can be hit or miss and surprisingly expensive for the quality. I will be on the lookout for better options and will continue to update you all as I'm determined to find a great NA wine for my pregnant friends and others who want to cut back on alcohol! So stay tuned!